Addressing This Current Situation
Rev. Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader
Last week was tough for the American Church and its leaders, no doubt. After last Wednesday, many pastors we engaged were either in shock or numbed out by the ongoing chaos. As human beings, they didn’t have much to give or say. As disciples and pastors, they were seeking God’s word in order to deliver a word in Sunday worship. Last week was one tough week for America, God’s Church, and its leaders.
Though I predicted major changes in government and institutions as we transitioned from the Modern to Postmodern Era in my book Shift published in 2015.... I was naïve about the speed at which change would come. Our world and ministry context is shifting faster and more significantly than most churches and leaders anticipated, with governmental and political changes part of the mix. This is what it looks like to live during seasons of volatility.
Given this, I’m doing plenty of soul-searching along with everyone else in this Christian movement. What must we do? What do we have to offer? Where do we stand? After hitting my knees, reflecting, and conversing with sacred partners, here’s my best answer to date.
We must address our current situation with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
No, not a brilliantly new nor creative statement. On the other hand, our current situation calls for a clear response from ambassadors of the hopeful good news. Allow me to break this down into its two parts.
First, we must address our current situation.
Plenty of us as church leaders would rather not, thank you. We'd rather look elsewhere or play dumb or pretend it’s not noteworthy, while others of us want to blast someone with our anger, rebuking the nearest human who will receive our righteous indignation. At the same time, we recognize there are costs incurred when we decide to address something, whatever that something happens to be. Silence in the face of turmoil or randomly blasting with anger can both be appealing.
So first, churches and their leaders must connect with courage. They must turn to God and ask for what they need for the living of these days. There are times during our collective experience when silence speaks louder than words. That big, fat, loud elephant in the room must be addressed by God’s Church and her leaders, requiring us to be strong and courageous.
To that end, we are suggesting two approaches. Last week, including its Sunday with worship, was the first approach. Your church and its leaders addressed the events of last week in various ways and to some degree. You already took several steps toward addressing our current context. As this week is beginning, I’m anticipating more volatility on the national stage. We will continue to address last week’s crises as they continue to unfold this and coming weeks. Every church and its leaders are deciding how to address those events through worship and events.
The second approach toward addressing our current situation is to take the long look. As horrific as last week’s storming of the Capitol was, it was one volatile event in an increasingly volatile world. Shortly after the Cold War ended, students at the United States War College coined the acronym “VUCA” to describe our world’s increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Now this VUCA acronym is gaining new popularity due to its uncanny accuracy toward describing our experience. The VUCA nature of our world is escalating quickly, including the events at the Capitol last week.
To help your church understand itself in this current VUCA situation, we are providing this video for your use, Five Active Dynamics Every Church Must Address. Longing, Fear, Grief, Adaptation, and Vitality are present in most every church to some degree, swirling and circling each other. Use this video to create dialogue and discernment for identifying what’s happening in your church. This activity positions individual disciples to move forward, while positioning your leadership to identify what your church needs next in order to move forward in ministry and mission.
Second, we must bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to our current situation.
All the time, every day, in every way, we are always answering three questions through our choices and actions.
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in this situation?
What does it mean to be part of a gathered group of Christ-followers in this situation?
What does it mean to join God on mission in this current situation?
That friends, is the work of God’s people in this current situation. What does our faith have to offer a world gone mad? What does our faith tell us and others during volatile life disruption events? The gospel of Jesus Christ offers a better way to be human beings than what comes naturally to our kind. When our churches and their leaders proclaim the life-giving gospel, our world moves toward hope for the kingdom coming to earth as it is in heaven.
So with faith, hope, and love, we move forward, addressing our current situation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we live into greater expressions of the body of Christ through these identity refining volatile events here in 2021.